Category Archives: Economics

This week I interviewed UPS Alumni Carl Larson, who currently works in energy services at Solar City! When did you graduate from UPS? May 2009. Can you tell me about your work at SolarCity? (What do you do? How did you end up there? Do you have an idea of where you want to go within/outside of SolarCity?) My work at SolarCity definitely builds on what I studied in Econ at UPS, which is great. SolarCity is the nation’s leader for rooftop solar energy, we’re sister companies with Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and majority-owned by Elon Musk. I’m in sales at SolarCity, even though I’m never Continue reading Interview with UPS Alumni Carl Larson!→

I, along with fellow writer Nicky Smit and Professor Lea Fortmann, had the incredible opportunity to attend the CANUSSEE (Canada & United States Societies for Ecological Economics) Conference two weekends ago in Vancouver B.C. For those of you who aren’t familiar with ecological economics, it is a growing interdisciplinary field that aims to reform basic economic theory and reverse the paradigm that monetary growth measures the success of a society. Ecological economists criticize the anthropocentric nature of neoclassical economists, and emphasize the fact that the economy is a subset of nature, rather than the other way around. Most importantly, they Continue reading Oh Say, CANUSSEE pt. 2→

Last week, I had a mild case of deja vu reading Lorraine’s post providing an economic analysis of Uber’s entry into the New York transportation market. I couldn’t quite place where I had heard the story before. Then, almost the very next item on my RSS feed was an infographic from the Onion comparing Uber and traditional taxi services. A few days later, I remembered where I had heard about taxi medallions: NPR’s Planet Money. In particular, they ran a show this summer entitled “Taxi King.” The episode features an interview with Gene Freidman, New York taxi fleet magnate, on Continue reading Taxi vs. Uber Follow-Up→

Last week I had the pleasure, nay, the honor, to attend the joint Canadian and United States Ecological Economics (CANUSSEE) Conference. Its host was the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada, and so it was a drive but worth every grueling second. I jest. My company was fellow Sound Economics writer Miranda Kraus and chauffeur/Professor Lea Fortmann, and for three days I ate, drank, and sneezed economics. Scholars spanning the states and provinces flew in and paid mega sums of money to give PowerPoint spiels, violently network, and occasionally yell “Bullshit!” during each other’s talks. With more than 70 Continue reading Oh Say CANUSSEE→

Uber might be convenient, and it’s growth is promising – but it’s been hailed as a bad sign for taxi cabs, especially the massive taxi market in NYC. I used Uber in Boston on the regular, and there’s both a strong taxi cab and Uber presence there – but it doesn’t come close to NYC in regards to reliance on taxi cabs. There’s been tensions and debates this past year regarding Uber and taxis in the Big Apple this year, as they share the same (very small and highly profitable) space. About a year ago, taxi medallions (which allow taxi drivers or companies Continue reading Uber vs. taxis in New York City→

[This post follows up on Part Two from last week and Part One from the week before]. Over the last two weeks, I have been posting about the question: why have the parties negotiating over the future of Greece allowed a seemingly needless series of near catastrophes (followed by last-minute resolutions) to occur? Last week, I took a behavioral approach and considered procrastination as a potential contribution to the phenomenon. This week, we’ll consider a game theory point of view. The BBC featured an interesting (and brief!) article earlier this year describing the Greek situation from a game theory perspective. Continue reading Groundhog Day in Greece (Part 3)→

This week I interviewed Tom Merritt, a 2014 UPS economics graduate. I asked him a few questions about his experiences with economics, UPS and graduate school. When did you graduate from UPS and where did you go for grad school? I graduated from UPS in 2014 and then went straight into the Economics MA program at Cal State-East Bay. Can you tell me a little bit about the PhD application process? Are you looking to stay at the same university or are you looking at others (if that’s how it works)? Do you have a focus in mind? I’m looking at Continue reading Interview with Thomas Merritt – UPS Alum and PhD Candidate!→

Last week, I talked about carbon taxes, which is one of the primary methods that governments can monetarily encompass the negative environmental externalities that come from irresponsible production. Now, I will discuss the cap and trade system, also known as emissions trading. The cap and trade system is very interesting in the sense that it literally creates a market for carbon. The government sets an overall cap on emissions and creates limited authorizations to emit, up to the level of the cap. Sources that emit pollution, such as factories, can buy or sell the authorizations or save them to use in Continue reading Getting the Price Right: Cap and Trade→